I had no more than walked off my plane and turned on my phone when the voice and text messages appeared. A February 9, 2019 auction of a Angus Bull resulted in a new record price of $1,510,000. The questions involved if the sale price should have instead been $1,300,000.

Schaff Angus Valley as the seller retained possession of the bull and 20% of the semen rights, with the buyer (Herbster Angus Farms) securing the balance (80%) of the semen. The auction took place at the seller’s annual production sale hosted at their ranch near Saint Anthony, North Dakota.

Apparently, the auctioneer had completed the sale of this bull at $1,300,000 and then a late bidder offered $1,400,000 and the closed transaction was reopened resulting in a subsequent high bid of $1,510,000.

In viewing video and talking to several others who had as well, this appeared outside of the narrow allowance contained in the UCC 2-328 where the bid may be reopened when a bid comes in, ” … while the hammer is falling in acceptance of a prior bid the auctioneer …”

I did not view this particular auction’s terms and conditions — and I don’t really have to view them in that I would safely assume that bidders are not permitted to void their bid after, “Sold,” so any such allowance on the seller’s side would be materially inequitable.

Inequitable? Unfair, unjust, one-sided? Yes, that type of inequitable terms and conditions and while contracts can have inequitable provisions, auction contracts per the UCC 2-328 cannot be manifestly unreasonable (obviously unreasonable.)

Alternately, if no such inequitable terms were provided (unlikely I’m guessing,) this bull was clearly [should have been] sold for $1,300,000 and not $1,510,000. However, the same bidder at $1,300,000 was the high bidder at $1,510,000 and apparently the transaction was closed without consequence.

more info: apparently there was a 750,000 credit to Mr. Herbster from a bull bought 2 years before that did not stay fertile for the duration of the qaurantee. I’m still shaking my head, I heard Joe say sold at 1.3 also.